# "Some of the best friends I got is coloured." Wow. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057 "2019-07-14T06:32:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/21 "2019-07-14T20:20:47Z")
By not being passive and accepting it as inevitable, or not a big deal, or something that will just cure itself if we ignore it harder. One does not “take care of” the problem with a one-size soundbite that would satisfy you. One calls it out, points it out, and makes it clear that it is not acceptable in any form. In particular, in real life, not on the internet, we need to call it out in our friends, workplace, and everywhere we see it. The trouble with remaining silent and passive is that it leads racists to think that they are accepted. They need to be told they are not accepted - loudly and often. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/22 "2019-07-14T20:48:26Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Keep in mind your answer will determine if you are evil or just plain dumb. It’s too bad he isn’t both. Then you two wouldn’t be arguing. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/23 "2019-07-14T21:16:16Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > By not being passive and accepting it as inevitable, or not a big deal, or something that will just cure itself if we ignore it harder. > > One does not “take care of” the problem with a one-size soundbite that would satisfy you. One calls it out, points it out, and makes it clear that it is not acceptable in any form. In particular, in real life, not on the internet, we need to call it out in our friends, workplace, and everywhere we see it. The trouble with remaining silent and passive is that it leads racists to think that they are accepted. They need to be told they are not accepted - loudly and often. Sounds exhausting, luckily everyone in politics and popular culture has been doing that for 60 years or more so you have momentum. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/24 "2019-07-14T21:25:32Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Anyone who grew up in the 70’s or later grew up to some degree around different races, and knows they are regular people, same as them. > [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Millenials are used to myriads of races as next-door neighbors. > [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Much of racism stems from not interacting with other races. . White people in the USA South, as well as in many places in the North, interacted routinely with black people all of the time. They did so during slavery. They did so during Jim Crow. It most certainly didn’t make them not racist. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/25 "2019-07-14T21:26:01Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Sounds exhausting, luckily everyone in politics and popular culture has been doing that for 60 years or more so you have momentum. I think we still have a ways to go. [Fox & Friends praises Trump’s bigoted tweet telling Democratic congresswomen to leave the United States](https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/07/14/fox-friends-praises-trumps-bigoted-tweet-telling-democratic-congresswomen-leave-united-states/224205) But thanks for doing your part, and clearly, unequivocally calling out racist comments when you hear them from anyone in your life. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/26 "2019-07-14T21:54:40Z")
I’m seeing less and less distinction between Fox News and Infowars. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/27 "2019-07-14T22:13:47Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Sounds exhausting, luckily everyone in politics and popular culture has been doing that for 60 years or more so you have momentum. I keep meaning to tell you that you are one weird dude. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/28 "2019-07-14T22:25:42Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I think we still have a ways to go. > [Fox & Friends praises Trump’s bigoted tweet telling Democratic congresswomen to leave the United States](https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/07/14/fox-friends-praises-trumps-bigoted-tweet-telling-democratic-congresswomen-leave-united-states/224205) > > But thanks for doing your part, and clearly, unequivocally calling out racist comments when you hear them from anyone in your life. The real problems here are that Fox & Friends is a talk show masquerading as a news program and too few either don’t know or don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/29 "2019-07-14T22:39:17Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > The real problems here are that Fox & Friends is a talk show masquerading as a news program and too few either don’t know or don’t care. Talk show? I thought it was a KKK infomercial. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/30 "2019-07-14T22:46:16Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Talk show? I thought it was a KKK infomercial. Nah, the KKK has too much self respect to be sponsored by the creepy pillow guy. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/31 "2019-07-14T22:54:01Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > I mean it the same thread, every week. Just keep one on-going like the troll or trump ones. If two people on back to back days posted name your favorite soda, they would be merged, or one closed. > > I was advised in a previous thread that too many posts in one thread is bad form, and I dont wish to derail the OP’s thread, so I will vacate now. The reason you see threads about people like this and the band who has an evil flag is purely due to people wanting to demonstrate a certain level of wokeness. Why folks waste energy on a random person when there are nations like China and North Korea with legitimate concentration camps and issues that are several orders of magnitude worse is bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/32 "2019-07-14T22:56:56Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The reason you see threads about people like this and the band who has an evil flag is purely due to people wanting to demonstrate a certain level of wokeness. Why folks waste energy on a random person when there are nations like China and North Korea with legitimate concentration camps and issues that are several orders of magnitude worse is bizarre. Or maybe some folks are actually really concerned by racism in their own neighborhoods and communities? Sure, I suppose some could be liars spewing bullshit for silly reasons like demonstrating “wokeness”… but you really believe that every single critic of American racists is a liar? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/33 "2019-07-14T22:57:42Z")
It’s bizarre that we don’t want to become like North Korea? I guess that would be fine with you, but… I suppose this is like the “argument” that you can’t comment on global warming issues, unless you live in a cave and eat only grubs. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/34 "2019-07-14T23:19:59Z")
Meh. The eight-legged pony is showing off his “concern for virtue signalling” trick again. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2019, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/35 "2019-07-14T23:34:15Z")
“Anyone who exhibits even the tiniest bit of empathy is virtue signalling” Said the sociopath. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/36 "2019-07-15T00:11:58Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Or maybe some folks are actually really concerned by racism in their own neighborhoods and communities? Sure, I suppose some could be liars spewing bullshit for silly reasons like demonstrating “wokeness”… but you really believe that every single critic of American racists is a liar? I think it’s more a case, for most here at least, of misplaced priorities and irrationally disproportionately commenting on what is near and familiar. However, it is sad that billions of people live in conditions far worse with no commentary. That in itself seems like unconscious bigotry. That said, there are some who want the accusation of racism, sexism, \_\_\_ism to be such a toxic weapon that the Pavlovian response of the mob can be used to silence or destroy ideological opponents. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/37 "2019-07-15T00:21:29Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > White people in the USA South, as well as in many places in the North, interacted routinely with black people all of the time. They did so during slavery. They did so during Jim Crow. It most certainly didn’t make them not racist. did not interact with them as equals from birth. Did not grow up with minorities as friends, neighbors and equals. Knew them as property only, or lessers (govt approved). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/38 "2019-07-15T00:23:36Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The reason you see threads about people like this and the band who has an evil flag is purely due to people wanting to demonstrate a certain level of wokeness. Why folks waste energy on a random person when there are nations like China and North Korea with legitimate concentration camps and issues that are several orders of magnitude worse is bizarre. I’d focus on one of those countries over problems in the US if I lived there. But I don’t. I don’t stop pulling weeds because the guy across the street has more weeds than me. I don’t care about his weeds, I care about where I live. I mean, yes if it got to the point of hurting property values or becoming a public health hazard I might do something about it (talk to him, go to the housing authority, contact the city, whatever). But what I won’t do is figure it gives me an excuse to ignore my own. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/39 "2019-07-15T00:36:42Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The reason you see threads about people like this and the band who has an evil flag is purely due to people wanting to demonstrate a certain level of wokeness. Why folks waste energy on a random person when there are nations like China and North Korea with legitimate concentration camps and issues that are several orders of magnitude worse is bizarre. The reason you see threads like this is because people like me love America. So we hate to see people like Donald Trump hurting our country. And we hate to see people like you cheering him on. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057/40 "2019-07-15T00:46:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The reason you see threads like this is because people like me love America. So we hate to see people like Donald Trump hurting our country. And we hate to see people like you cheering him on. respectfully disagree in this case. this OP concerns a doddering old fool who grew up in the pre-Civil Rights Era south. Trumps not empowering him to do anything- he’s never had a minority tenant in the 50 years he’s owned the place. It’s not like he always had black tenants, now Trumps racism gave him the power to make it whites only. His _particular_ breed is a dying one. Archie Bunker is dead, his friends are dead or dying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-of-the-best-friends-i-got-is-coloured-wow/837057.md?page=3)